In a particle producing reactor, basic product species are formed within extremely short time spans following ejection of a hot, reactive medium from an energy delivery zone. Following ejection, further formation mechanisms determine the ultimate characteristics of the final product.
Although chemical reactions such as nucleation and surface growth within precursor materials occur largely during energy delivery, these formation mechanisms continue to be active in the first short moments following ejection. More prevalent in the post-ejection time period are bulk formation mechanisms such as coagulation and coalescence, which operate on already formed particles. Any proper conditioning of the hot, reactive medium following ejection from the energy delivery zone must account for these and other formation mechanisms to form a final product having desired characteristics. In some instances, maintaining a reactive mixture at too high a temperature can lead to overly agglomerated particles in the final product.
In addition to particle formation, proper conditioning must account for post-formation processing of the product. Although particles, once formed, cool rapidly through radiative heat loss, the residual gas in which they are entrained after formation cools much more slowly, and especially so when confined. Confinement is necessary to some degree in any controlled-environment processing system—and economic concerns usually dictate relatively small, confining controlled environments. Therefore, such systems must provide efficient mechanisms for cooling of the entire gas-particle product, yet also provide for efficient transport of the product to collection points within the system.
Transport of particles within a gas stream relies on entrainment of the particle, which is largely a function of particle properties, e.g. mass, temperature, density, and inter-particle reactivity, as well as gas properties, e.g., density, velocity, temperature, density, viscosity, and composite properties, such as particle-gas reactivity. Cooling of a gas, by definition, affects gas temperature, but also may easily lead to changes in other properties listed above, exclusive of mass. In view of the foregoing, balancing efficient cooling and transportation of a gas-particle product requires careful optimization of process parameters, which the present invention seeks to achieve.